Beach Finds

I am enjoying fall in Florida! I get to go to the beach and sit and sort through thousands of shells. I am so inspired by the shells and I love to add to my collection. Last weekend I forgot to bring my camera though. But I had my phone and got a couple of pictures of the thousands of shells at the beach.

And then I took pictures of my finds when I got home.

A friend of mine has been asking for some shells for a while now. I am going to finally surprise her with a bag of them. 

Enjoy your weekend! I hope it is a lovely one.

And have a Happy Halloween!

xoxo, Kat

October Blog Topic: favourite season? (and why?)

Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall.

I love all the seasons. It's hard to choose a favorite. I don't know if I can pick.

But if I have to choose, I love the spring. I love seeing the flowers in bloom. In Florida flowers bloom almost all year though...so I love seeing them throughout the year. 

The summers in Florida are nice too. 

They are very hot, but you can swim in the ocean which is wonderful! 

The water here is almost always crystal clear and you can see your feet and fish swimming by. I have seen sting rays swimming along the waters edge before which was such an amazing site to see.

Most of you know that I spent 11 years in Southwest Colorado. The seasons are quite different there than here in Florida. 

In Colorado I loved the summers. The weather was perfect and I could go on hikes and look for the beautiful wildflowers. 

The flowers were amazing in the summer. 

But the summer was short and before I knew it...it was be fall and then winter again. 

In the fall the aspen would change to their beautiful golden colors and they would jingle in the wind. It was a wonderful site to see and hear! As soon as fall began, winter would be quickly around the corner and it would start snowing.

Winter in Colorado was magical. 

I can remember the amazing quiet of hearing the snow fall. 

The calm of the winter was comforting. I would love to sit by the window drinking my hot chocolate and watching the big snowflakes slowly fall. 

To hear the snow fall is magical.

Photo by turbatn on flickr

 In Florida I love the fall and winter also. I love spending time at the beach and searching for small treasures in the sand. The beaches are not too crowded...sometimes you get to explore them by yourself and enjoy a quiet windy day listening to the waves crash in. 

See I told you I couldn't pick a favorite! I love them all for different reasons.

Make sure to check out my friends' blogs about this topic also:

Andes Cruz

Natsuko Hanks

Beth Cyr

Barbara Donovan

Diana Fazio

Thomasin Durgin

WATTO

Weekend Beach Pictures

We went to the beach a couple of times over the weekend. I took lots of pictures! 

The beach was perfect!! It was warm and sunny. 

I hope you are enjoying your weekend too!

Ring a Day Book

When I received my Ring a Day book a few weeks ago, I was so thrilled to finally have it in my hands and flip through it.  I love it. It is amazing to look through and revisit my journey through Ring a Day with my metalsmithing friends. It is so wonderful to see all the rings together. There are so many of my favorite ones in it. 

And the inside cover has my Sea Urchin Ring! I'm so excited. 

The layout is fun. It is a very inspiring book. 

As many of you know, Ring a Day was a project that I participated in. It was a great group of jewelers on Flickr who made a ring a day for the entire year of 2010. The rings could be made from anything and creativity was encouraged. Over 16,000 photos were posted to the RAD group on flickr.

The Ring a Day book has 700 photos. It is a wonderful selection of the rings from the project.

You can buy the Ring a Day book on Amazon. 

I give it 5 stars, but I am biased!!!

I am giving one away to one lucky reader of my blog. 

To enter please comment below. (And leave me your email in case you are the winner or be sure to check back)

I will take entries through next Sunday, October 23rd.

For extra entries, please blog, facebook, twitter, or share this post some other place and then let me know by posting an additional post/comment below.

Thank you! Have a wonderful weekend!

And the winner is #2:

Recent work:Turquoise, Labradorite, and Flowers

I love Turquoise and Labradorite. 

Turquoise reminds me of the Southwest and my time living there. 

I love the beautiful colors of each stone. 

Each one is so unique. The stones look like mini landscapes.

And the Labradorite just seems magical with it's flash of color. 

I created a vine to wrap around the stone. The setting is completely made by hand with sterling and fine silver. I placed one small blossom on it's side. 

In Japan cherry blossoms are held in the highest esteem. As the season of cherry blossoms blooming are so short, cherry blossoms represent the beautiful, but transient nature of our lives.

Wear this tiny blossom to remind you of what is important to you in your world and to take the time to look at the flowers.

This necklace I made for a lady to represent her four daughters. 

I just love that she wanted four little daisies all in a row.

This is one of my favorite custom pieces.

And this necklace is a simple cherry blossom necklace.

Earrings to match.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
Anais Nin 

The Blossom Necklace and Earrings are already listed and I will work on getting the Labradorite Ring listed soon. 

The Turquoise Ring and the Four Daisies Necklace were custom pieces and something similar could be made.

Thank you so much for looking! Have a wonderful weekend! 

~Kathryn

Swings Pictures

Swings Tampa Bay is a spontaneous community building organization. They hang handmade Swings all over Tampa Bay.

Swings Website

I have been to two of the Swings events and painted swings with my daughter. We kept one swing and have left 3 to be hung around the Tampa Bay area. I wonder where they ended up?

We have happened upon swings around downtown ourselves and had so much fun swinging in them. Sometimes I get to swing too!!

Jennifer of Eve-n-Odd Gallery painting another awesome swing.

All the swings!!!!!!!

Swings is a wonderful organization that creates a sense of community.

I hope to see you at the next SWINGS event!